Stark choices on major issues emerge between candidates as the Local Elections 2016 enter final week – City Vision

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September 30, 2016

A New Zealand Government Press Release dated 29 September 2016 announced the Cabinet’s decision to extend New Zealand’s contribution to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation up until September 2018. The NZ Government acknowledges that the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation emerged through United Nations Security Council Resolution 50, to supervise the truce in Palestine.

The Government statement says that military observers monitor the situation along the borders of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Just what is meant by the borders of Israel is far from clear because Palestine is not mentioned and New Zealand’s troops are positioned, not on Syria’s border but in the Israeli-Occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The official press release is actually entitled Government extends Golan Heights commitment.

For the Palestinian people, New Zealand’s presence in the region does nothing to draw attention to the daily Israeli violence they are subjected to. Recently, the Israeli Army destroyed an internationally-donated Palestinian nature reserve containing 5000 trees. Palestinian homes and water-storage tanks continue to be destroyed by the Occupying Power. In the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights, human rights abuses, so familiar to Palestinians, are being visited upon the Syrian population.

Israel is annexing the Syrian territory because, among other reasons, it holds major energy reserves.

The Golan Heights has Israel’s only ski resort, which is marketed as being in Israel. Foreign military Occupation can only add to the complexities and injustices of the conflict. New Zealand Government ministers have carefully avoided the question of Israel’s violations of international law, including the home demolition and settlement building that have now also begun in Syria. The Zionist regime has declared that Israel and the Golan Heights are “part and parcel” and that the international community should get used to the fact. While Israel continues to enjoy such impunity the chaos and instability suffered by the region can only reach ever more catastrophic proportions. None of the Security Council’s members have taken any steps to require Israel to stop violating international law. New Zealand has a duty to speak truth to power – let real peace-keeping begin!

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E tū condemns laser strikes targeting flights near Wellington and Auckland

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September 30, 2016

The flight attendants’ union, E tū has condemned a series of laser strikes targeting flights near Auckland and Wellington airports as irresponsible and potentially lethal.

The strikes affected several international flights into Auckland this morning, as well as an Air New Zealand plane heading into Wellington last night.

E tū’s Director of Organising Aviation, Kelvin Ellis says the pilots in the Wellington incident were temporarily blinded, and though they landed safely, the outcome could have been catastrophic.

“These strikes put everyone at risk, including the pilots, flight attendants and the general public”, says Kelvin.

He says landing at Wellington is stressful enough without the risk of a laser strike, and all landings are the most stressful time for all flight crews.

“To have this stress at the back of their minds is not a good thing.”

He says the number of laser strikes over such a short period was also very concerning.

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TDB September Contributions drive – last days

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September 29, 2016

Brothers and Sisters, if you think The Daily Blog is an important voice in the NZ media landscape, then we need your help.

Putting together exclusive left wing/progressive live streamed content every month and co-ordinating 40 of the best left wing progressive voices each month don’t come cheap. The Daily Blog is the largest left wing blog in NZ and you know how dire the mainstream media has become so these few platforms left to fight back at the Government and corporate power are more essential than ever before.

If you are in a position to contribute financially, this week is our last days of the September donations drive – please do so here. If you want to help us but can’t do so financially, please retweet and share all our work on social media.

In solidarity.

TDB Team

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Paralympian Aine Kelly Costello – I am not a “Superhuman” and my blindness does not need to be “Cured”

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September 29, 2016

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Language is never black and white. As this NY Times article suggests, most of us, on the one hand, would hate to think of ourselves as racist or homophobic or ablest, and on the other, still hold biases that we are barely aware exist. After all, we don’t buy biases at the supermarket. They prefer to creep into our conversations or essays or Facebook statuses. Sometimes, they are the wallpaper to us, and the rhinoceros in the room for our audience. I’ll show you a couple of my recent rhinos.

We are the Superhumans

In the lead-up to the Rio Paralympics, Channel 4, the official paralympic broadcaster for the UK, released a trailor depicting people with disabilities in a positive light. In fact, they went so far as to suggest that the subjects are no ordinary human beings.

“We’re the superhumans!”, reads the gleeful tag line.

I get it, Channel 4. You’re a broadcaster in need of a punchy, positive headline. You’re genuinely trying to portray people with a disability as positive and thriving members of society. You’re even making an effort to make your video accessible by audio describing and close-captioning it.

But as a person with a disability, I find it demeaning that my peers are being put in a box called “superhumans”.

Let’s brainstorm.

SUPERHUMANS:

Superheroes
Preternatural talent
Unhuman
Above and beyond
Freaky
AI
… What have I missed?

I am blind. I am a Paralympian—a swimmer. And I am definitely not a superhuman. I hate to break it to you, but just like every other high-performing sportsperson or performing artist, I didn’t wake up one day and discover my mermaid streak.

You know what most Paralympic and Olympic swimmers actually do?

Train upwards of 16 hours/week
Go to the gym
See nutritionists and keep tabs on what we eat when
Benefit from Sport Psych services
Work with physios and massage therapists
Reshuffle the rest of our lives around our sport

Call us nuts. If you insist, call us “super humans” (i.e. humans who are super/awesome/ …). But every human in Channel 4’s campaign trailer has put far too much of themselves into their sport or art to deserve to be likened to the Incredible Hulk.

Foundation Fighting Blindness

“The urgent mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Inc. is to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by […]the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.”

Why?

“More than 10 million Americans of every age and race suffer vision loss from these blinding diseases.”

And they’re bringing in the bucks, alright:

“[…] the Foundation has raised more than $600 million [towards] leading-edge research in promising areas such as genetics, gene therapy, retinal cell transplantation, and pharmaceutical and nutritional therapies.”

I get it, FFB. You want to help us, or at least, our future counterparts, be free from the burden you find blindness to be. This, you are sure, will remove much unnecessary stress from our lives, give us opportunities we were afraid to dream of before, and help us integrate better into society. I’m glad the research you have funded exists, and I’m glad you are fundraising to make that possible.

But it disgusts me that, as a fundraising tactic, you use methods which research (not to mention common sense) is showing worsen people’s perception of just how awful it must be to actually be blind for a substantial length of time. Your methods also place undue weight on the problem of blindness itself, when a lot of the problem lies in those sneaky biases I was talking about at the beginning.

Your thinking is engrained in your language—language which those who campaign on behalf of you naturally spread. If my blindness needs “cured”, and I “suffer” from my vision loss, how will society react if I honestly say that I really don’t know if I’d choose to get some sight back if the opportunity arose? What will blind children, being used as the poster girls and boys of fundraising campaigns for FFB think when the scientists you fund for research say things like “FFB […] has given hope to people who didn’t previously have hope”?

Compounding that, your tactics ask people to act on that pull of their heartstrings. Your latest campaign, #HowEyeSeeIt, challenges sighted people to do something blindfolded and video the experience, so everyone else finds out what it’s like too.

Let’s say the task is for Eva to navigate from a chair in the middle of a classroom to the door. To make sure she’s getting the real deal, Eva borrows her friend’s cane for the exercise.

Eva’s experience probably goes something like this.

Step 1: blindfold on.

Feeling: sweaty.

Step 2: look for cane.

Feeling: adventurous.

Step 3: start walking.

Feeling: trepidation.

Step 4: keep walking.

Feeling: disoriented duck

Let me try the real-life version of Eva’s exercise, as someone who was born blind.

Class is over, time to leave.

Step 1: pick up cane (I know where I put it).

Feeling: half-asleep.

Step 2: listen to hear where that door is that people are leaving from.

Feeling: alert dog.

Step 3: with one hand blocking desk collisions, and the other preventing them with cane, follow people.

Feeling: #freshairtime #freedom.

*****

Our language can’t exists in a vacuum, separate from our intentions. It is our job, as communicators, to constantly strive to make these two see eye to eye. That is #howeyeseeit

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Portrait of a Pākehā – LaQuisha St Redfern

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The Liberal Agenda

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September 29, 2016

I met Tatyana Kulida at the New Zealand Art Show, where I was interviewing artists for my YouTube series “A Taste of LaQuisha”. Her art was unlike the other art on display. It was from another era. An era, I later discovered, before photography, where a portrait painter would train as long as a doctor. Studying not only light and colour, but detailed human anatomy.

Sometime later I received a message from Tatyana asking if I would sit for her. It will come as no surprise to anyone that my answer was a resounding “yes”.

What does one wear for a portrait sitting? To be rendered for posterity. I selected a floor length, deep purple strapless gown, that shows off my broad masculine shoulders and my hirsute décolletage. A purchase from SOUP Fashion Recovery. Where I visit and ask the ever delightful Marie: “Do you have any big girls clothes?”

My most elaborate wig, recently acquired one hot Californian afternoon from Outfiggers Wigs (est. 1969) on Hollywood Boulevard. This store was suggested to me by former Wellington, now Melbourne based, Drag Queen Polyfilla.

And then to jewelry; Grandma Johnston’s garnet ring, a gift from my mother during a low point in my life. Pounamu drop earrings, a jade ring and around my neck a deer antler carved by Gareth McGhie, incorporating Te Arawa and Tainui motifs and coloured with Pākehā tattoo ink used in the late 19th century. These last three were gifts from a former lover. I used to feel that I would be consumed by grief if I wore them. And then I remembered the sage advice of Zsa Zsa Gabor: always keep the jewelry.

Finally makeup, and I take special care, because I know that I’ll have to do the same “paint job” (as the new generation of Drag Queens call it) again and again during the process of portraiture.

Thus it came to be, one Sunday afternoon, that I tottered into Tatyana’s studio on Willis St and began the first of many sittings. Where it occurred to me that in many ways, Tatyana would be painting a painting. Tatyana and I did discuss the many tricks of Drag Makeup I’ve learned to create the illusion of a more feminine bone structure that is coded for in my DNA.

I’ve now had three sittings with Tatyana . The time passes slowly, and pleasantly, portraiture is the polar opposite of a selfie. We’ve discussed many things, and lucky for this forgetful writer, Tatyana has kept her on notes on her Instagram.

And so I present the list of conversational topics between a European portrait artist trained at the The Florence Academy of Art, and a Pākehā Drag Queen raised in Ngāruawāhia:

Gender identity, stereotypes, growing up, falling in love and make up.

We discussed theatre, painting, experiences and consequences of prejudice, coming of age, shopping, wigs and body image,

‘Sex and the City’ , eyebrows, intolerance, the state of culture in New Zealand and the meaning of drag.

You can see the progress of the portrait on Tatyana’s Instagram here and like the portrait itself, the story of this experience will take more that a single post to complete.

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GUEST BLOG: Kelvin Smythe – Hekia Parata fighting for her job

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September 29, 2016

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There was the lie in parliament swearing on the bible that she consulted with a Christchurch special needs group about the proposed change to targeted funding.

That, even for her, was unusually reckless.

The signs of increasing growing desperation about the so-called ‘big shake-up’ – but that is only a small part of the miasma over which Hekia is responsible.

She knows, except for some academic and principal cronies, she won’t be missed, and that she will go down in education as the worst minister of education ever, unparalleled in never allowing a fact go by without seriously interfering with it.

Deep down she knows history will condemn her, the most chilling condemnation, in particular, will be her betrayal of Maori children with her pernicious 18% rhetoric; and the most horrendous, in general, creating education mayhem with her leadership style; locked as she is into an inability, because of her personality, to introduce education change, even in the rare circumstance where it meant good, without revelling in the power of imposition and thereby destroying possibility of that good.

With all this I said ‘Hah!’ get ready for the profile spin, she will be fearful for her job.

And on 27 September there it was in the NZ Herald; what a strange foundling of an article it was by Nicholas Jones. He had obviously been called in by Hekia’s media team and handed the bundle.

There was a potted history of the girl from Ruatoria being marvellous scattered throughout the article, along with bits and pieces of the so-called shake-up and some comment from education spokespeople.

It had the structure of a squashed jellyfish

So there it was, ostensibly about the big shake-up but really about Parata trying to come across as the Ruatoria girl next door: we get loads of family references, for instance, crossing the Waiapu on horseback to go to the rugby, her secondary school principal father, and a lot of attention to All Blacks (even an actual tweet sending best wishes to the World Cup squad), then a reference to Waikato university days and ‘helping to get the Hamilton game called off’ (sorry Hekia I was there, and all the other weeks before, noticed Donna but not you). This attempt at making her a real person slithers about for three long pages.

The article in its formlessness and idiosyncrasy unprecedented surely in newspaper history.

Something is up and that indicates Hekia is in danger of coming down.

For Hekia to use this populist, down-home stuff to distract from the way she has ripped the heart out of New Zealand schools, especially primary schools, and to further her plans for more rough surgery (better called the ‘big shakedown’), demonstrates she senses a problem of tenure, and she knows it.

She knew there was a Herald article in the offing demonstrating that NCEA is an education fraud of her construction. And she knew that the article wasn’t even going to get to the real point of the NCEA shambles – that of manipulation within the manipulation described, and it being symptomatic of whole-of-system failure.

For all that million dollar smile and oleaginous demeanour what a cold-hearted minister of education she has been. In her pursuit of putting down teachers and public education she can’t help herself from, in the end, hurting children, especially vulnerable children. I have mentioned Maori children above (oh yes let them eat cake); now, once again, children with special needs. She once notoriously hinted that special needs children are a result of poor teaching and teachers should just get on with it; and here we have the miserly funded targeted provision, but even more, if bulk funding came in, it would be special needs children that would suffer most.

She knows but doesn’t care.

And there are other things in the offing aren’t there Hekia? you know what I mean. And I don’t mean the mess that is clusters and the questions Treasury is asking about them.

“Kelvin Smythe was a primary school teacher, teachers college lecturer, and senior inspector of schools. He has been battling the neoliberal agenda in New Zealand education since 1989.”

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GUEST BLOG: Amnesty International – Thailand: A culture of torture under the military

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September 29, 2016

Since seizing power in a 2014 coup, Thailand’s military authorities have allowed a culture of torture and other ill-treatment to flourish across the country, with soldiers and policemen targeting suspected insurgents, political opponents, and individuals from the most vulnerable sections of society, a new report by Amnesty International said today.

The report, “Make Him Speak by Tomorrow”: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Thailand, documents 74 cases of torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of soldiers and the police, including beatings, suffocation by plastic bags, strangling by hand or rope, waterboarding, electric shocks of the genitals, and other forms of humiliation.

“Thailand may claim to be tough on torture, but actions speak louder than words. Empowered by laws of their own making, Thailand’s military rulers have allowed a culture of torture to flourish, where there is no accountability for the perpetrators and no justice for the victims,” said Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s Director for South East Asia and the Pacific.

Martial law and post-coup decrees have authorised soldiers to impose incommunicado detention on individuals in unofficial sites for up to a week, during which time many victims interviewed by Amnesty International said they were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment.

Thailand’s police forces have also used torture and other ill-treatment against a wide range of people: migrants, suspected drug users, members of ethnic minorities, and others. Amnesty International has been told that these abuses have accelerated since the coup.

In an environment where few dare criticize the authorities publicly, and human rights defenders face charges of criminal defamation for speaking out publicly about torture, many accounts of torture and other ill-treatment have remained untold. The report brings to light harrowing testimony from survivors and their families, preserving anonymity for security reasons.

‘Please shoot me and send my corpse to my family’

Soon after the coup, “Tul” – not his real name – was arrested by the army and held at an undisclosed location for seven days, during which time he was repeatedly tortured using severe beatings and other methods.

“They put a plastic bag on my head until I fainted, and then poured a bucket of cold water on me,” he told Amnesty International. “They applied electro-shock to my penis and chest. I was restrained, my legs tied, and my face covered with tape and a plastic bag.”

Following what he described as “the worst day” of his ordeal, “Tul” appealed to the soldiers to end his life. “Please shoot me,” he pleaded with his tormentors, “and send my corpse to my family.”

Many of the torture victims interviewed by Amnesty International said they were tortured during the first seven days of detention – the period when the military is allowed to hold them in unofficial places and without contact with the outside world or any other safeguards against ill-treatment.

“Rutkee,” another torture victim, underwent an excruciating ordeal, both physically and mentally. He was repeatedly beaten, waterboarded, suffocated with a garbage bag over his head, strangled with a cable, and threatened with guns and grenades. Soldiers also pulled on his penis and deprived him of sleep.

‘Make him speak by tomorrow’

The report reveals that a culture which enables and encourages torture permeates the Thai military. One of the people interviewed for the report, a former junior commander in the Royal Thai Army stated that soldiers assigned to interrogate detainees are often told to “make him speak by tomorrow.”

“An officer gets punished if he doesn’t get results,” the former junior commander told Amnesty International. “In the army, people use force to control, not thought. An order is final…If you don’t get results, you will be punished.”

Legal incentives to torture

Despite being a party to the UN Convention against Torture and legally obliged to respect its provisions, there is still no law in Thailand specifically criminalizing torture. Thai law also gives judges the discretion to allow “evidence” obtained through torture in courts. Investigations into complaints are rare, and prosecutions rarer still.

This state of affairs is exacerbated by a post-coup legal framework that gives military officers the power to detain people arbitrarily, consigning them for up to seven days to undisclosed locations where acts of torture cannot be seen and the suffering of victims cannot be heard.

The Martial Law Act – which has been employed in the restive south continuously since 2006 – and a series of post-coup orders issued by the National Council for Peace and Order (as the ruling junta is named) override existing safeguards against torture provided for by Thai law. Amnesty International found that torture and other ill-treatment are used most intensively by military interrogators during the periods of unaccountable detention created by these laws.

“Most victims are too afraid to speak out. When they come forward to complain, the courts tend to ignore them. And yet, the same courts are willing to accept coerced confessions, even after they are retracted. The torturers are not punished for their crimes but the victims are condemned to one injustice after another,” said Rafendi Djamin.

Soon after the coup, “Lert” – not his real name – was interrogated for up to 10 hours each day over a four day period during which he was denied water. Two or sometimes three men beat him during the interrogation sessions, using their fists, feet and a gun to strike him.

The beatings, Lert said, were meant to force him to confess. On the second day of his interrogation, one of the soldiers said, “Today you have to speak or your family will be in trouble. I know where [they] live.”

Towards a torture-free Thailand

Amnesty International’s report recommends simple steps that the Thai authorities can take to effectively address the legal and institutional shortcomings that enable torture.

These include ending unaccountable detention, criminalizing torture, banning the use of “evidence” obtained by torture and other ill-treatment, investigating reports of torture and bringing those responsible to justice, creating an independent monitoring body to carry out oversight of detention facilities, and providing remedies to victims.

“Torture does not just humiliate the victim. It also debases the perpetrator, hollowing out their humanity. The safeguards to prevent torture do not just protect the detainees. They also protect the uniformed officials who hold them in custody and the state they represent,” said Rafendi Djamin.

Thailand is currently preparing a draft Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, which would criminalize torture and establish other safeguards against torture.

“If the new law is brought into line with the UN Convention against Torture, and in particular ensures effective independent investigations into torture complaints, it would mark an important step towards ridding Thailand of these appalling abuses,” said Rafendi Djamin.

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`I’m comfortable with that’ A review of Gavin Ellis` ‘Complacent Nation’

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Wayne Hope

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September 29, 2016

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I remain haunted by the Havelock North water poisoning debacle.

Thousands of people ill, some with chronic conditions. A brief flame of controversy, political handwringing everywhere, inquiries promised, then….nothing.

As the news cycle moves on no-one seems to care about this abject failure of public health and local body governance. Does no-one worry about the prospect of another water poisoning event amidst hyper-intensive dairying, nitrogen run- off , waterway pollution, massive irrigation schemes and water acquafer depletion?

Are New Zealanders generally, too accepting of preventable disasters such as Cave Creek, leaky apartment complexes, the Rena grounding and Pike River?

In the same vein one might also ask whether news media, politicians and the public appreciate the fragility of our democratic freedoms? Gavin Ellis in `Complacent Nation` answers this question in the negative.

Public access to official information has declined, government control over information flow has increased, public relations and communication management swamps inquiring journalism. Across financially weakening news organisations infotainment colonises news content, weak legal infrastructures compromise freedom of expression just as executive state agencies frustrate and intimidate investigative journalists.

These criticisms are well documented.

We discover that the progressive intentions of the 1982 Official Information Act (OIA) have been subverted by the obstructions of government ministries and senior service officials. Obviously, Robert Muldoon as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance could frustrate individual OIA requests within the letter of the law. Ellis argues that today this subversion is institutionalised. When government ministries assess OIA requests the caveats of national security, public safety and maintenance of the law are supplemented, quite routinely, by political risk assessments. Will this release of official information reflect badly on the government? Cause the Minister embarrassment? Or provide ammunition for opposition parties? Within each department the Minister can intervene personally under the guise of presenting an opinion. Information requests often elicit written official replies which are bland, hard to follow and/or slow to arrive.

Furthermore commercial as well as bureaucratic filters prevail; Treasury and the Reserve Bank typically charge for access to released documents. Meanwhile public scrutiny of government ministries, state owned enterprises and local government authorities is curtailed as news coverage diminishes.

Census figures reveal that the number of print, radio and television journalists fell from 2,214 to 1,170 between 2006 and 2013. Ellis notes that remaining journalists must respond to print, broadcasting and digital platforms as news budgets contract. Unsurprisingly, tabloid news values have predominated. Ellis` front page,weekday survey of five metropolitan dailies (during January 2014) showed that 60 per cent of the New Zealand Herald`s lead stories were about crime or emergencies. The figures for the Dominion Post, the Waikato Times and Otago Daily Times were 52,56 and 40 per cent respectively. Christchurch`s Press devoted 35 per cent of the front page to such content (understandably, earthquake recovery stories were prominent).

According to a 2015 survey of 1900 television news bulletins undertaken by on-line news service Newsroom Plus, 24 per cent of TV One stories were devoted to crime and punishment;the figure for TV 3 was 32 per cent. (see civicsandmediaprojectnz.org). Ellis asks whether non crime-related news events of relevance to New Zealanders were adequately covered. He generally concludes that `society is struggling to maintain the distribution of democratically significant information and meaningful debate to large scale audiences` (p22).

The rapid growth of public relations professionals worsens the problem.

As of 2015 they outnumbered print, radio and television journalists 3 to 1. And, as news room resources declined journalists became more dependent upon public relations material for stories. Government ministries and other organisations insist upon written contact with the media. Ellis refers here to the Auckland District Health Board`s media manual. Only designated people can speak to the media and such statements must be checked in advance by communication managers.

Local bodies behave in a similar way.

Massey University researcher Catherine Strong found that of the 43 city and district councils sampled almost 25 per cent had codes of conduct which prevented elected councillors from publicly criticising their council (p74).

Within Crown Research Organisations Ellis notes that that contract law provisions discourage scientists from speaking out. During the 2012 Fonterra botulism scare for example, all communication was channelled through the senior Fonterra executives,the head of Agresearch and the director-general of the Ministry for Primary Industries. Journalists could not get to scientists and they were discouraged from commenting publicly.

For investigative journalists freedom of expression is always under threat. Here, Ellis recounts an attempt by the New Zealand Defence Force to undermine the credibility of Jon Stephenson who had reported on New Zealand`s military activity in Afghanistan. After publication of his Auckland Metro article `Eyes Wide Shut` the Ministry falsely claimed that a key interview was fabricated and Prime Minister John Key attacked the journalist. Eventually, after Stephenson bought defamation proceedings against the New Zealand Defence Force and its then Commander in Chief Lieutenant General Rhys Jones, an out of court settlement was reached. Ellis asks whether `the episode will have a chilling effect on other journalists who wish to report on our military and its operations` (p86).

Equally concerning was the ten-hour police search of author Nicky Hager`s residence following the publication of `Dirty Politics`. In an attempt to identify a confidential source, documents and computer equipment were seized. Hager`s bank ,telecommunications and on-line records were surveilled. Ellis argued at the time that the police actions would act as a disincentive to potential sources and encourage journalists to limit their dealings with whistleblowers. Disturbingly, he noted that journalists working at home on sensitive topics may feel `they are putting the well being of their families at risk` (p89).

Overall, Ellis`s concerns are entirely valid and well explained. I think though that our predicament maybe worse than he suggests.

Let me explain.

From the mid 1980s the Fourth Labour government and the 1990 National government destroyed Keynesian social democracy and damaged the principles of liberal democracy. Key events here included the elevation of Treasury to super-ministry status and the insulation of the Reserve Bank from party-political scrutiny .

The 1989 Reserve Bank Act substituted monetarist for Keynesian macro-economics without any electoral mandate. The same can be said of the dismantling of the old public service,this is when cynicism toward the OIA really became entrenched.

The privatisation agenda between 1989 and 1993 was not openly discussed with the electorate either. The deregulation of broadcasting and the removal of foreign restrictions on media ownership sharply increased commercial pressures on news and current affairs content . And, it was during this era that public relations and communications management began to spread like a disease throughout the country.

The introduction of MMP was the only countervailing trend. In retrospect it is clear that Helen Clark`s government after 1999 did not really challenge the fundamentals of neo-liberal economics; the Reserve Bank Act remained and so called `free trade` agreements were enthusiastically endorsed despite their threats to New Zealand`s economic sovereignty. On macro-economic matters there was no real dispute between the National and Labour parties. And, crucially, when National gained office in 2008 there were no institutional impediments to the further erosion of liberal democracy.

Ellis catalogues this erosion without providing the necessary historical context. Neither does he address the contributions of the Prime Minister. If New Zealand is a complacent nation then John Key himself is a paragon of complacency -`I’m comfortable with that`. His leadership of the country is premised on a complete lack of interest in democratic niceties; just get the deal done and let the academics argue over the consequences.

One should also acknowledge that the actions against John Stephenson and Nicky Hager do not just threaten journalistic autonomy; they also reflect the workings of an executive state apparatus with distinct authoritarian tendencies.

This brings me back to the Havelock North water poisoning. The sheer lack of public accountability from health authorities, the general passivity of the government and the lack of practical know-how about the basics of water reticulation within the Hastings council raises a bleak prospect. If the poisoning of thousands happens again it will not slow the demise of liberal democracy in New Zealand.

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Malcolm Evans – Judiciary red carded

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Malcolm Evans

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September 29, 2016

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Political Caption Competition – Hipster cop with a taser

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September 29, 2016

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TDB Top 5 International Stories: Thursday 29th September 2016

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September 29, 2016

5: MH17: Missile fired from Russia-backed rebel area

A Malaysian airliner shot down in eastern Ukraine was hit by a missile launched from an area controlled by Russia-backed rebels and the delivery system then retreated back into Russian territory, investigators said on Wednesday.

The findings challenge Russia’s suggestion that Malaysia Airlines flight 17 – en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014 – was brought down by the Ukrainian military. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.

Aljazeera

4: Queensland’s Women’s Prison Is So Overcrowded Inmates Have to Sleep on the Floor

Brisbane Women’s Correctional Facility was built to house 258 prisoners but there are currently 366 female inmates living there. Released on Tuesday, a damning report written by Queensland Ombudsman Phil Clarke exposes how dire the situation has become. In the overcrowded conditions, many inmates are sleeping on the floor—some even with their heads pressed up against the toilet in their cell.

“In my view, Queensland Corrective Services has failed to provide adequate living conditions for prisoners at the BWCF [Brisbane Women’s Correctional Facility],” Clarke writes in the report.

His report details the many instances where two prisoners are forced to share tiny cells that are designed for one person. This means that one inmate must sleep on the floor, with their head next to the toilet—neither hygienic nor comfortable. Any sense of privacy goes out the window.

Vice News

3: APPLE LOGS YOUR IMESSAGE CONTACTS — AND MAY SHARE THEM WITH POLICE

APPLE PROMISES THAT your iMessage conversations are safe and out of reach from anyone other than you and your friends. But according to a document obtained by The Intercept, your blue-bubbled texts do leave behind a log of which phone numbers you are poised to contact and shares this (and other potentially sensitive metadata) with law enforcement when compelled by court order.

Every time you type a number into your iPhone for a text conversation, the Messages app contacts Apple servers to determine whether to route a given message over the ubiquitous SMS system, represented in the app by those déclassé green text bubbles, or over Apple’s proprietary and more secure messaging network, represented by pleasant blue bubbles, according to the document. Apple records each query in which your phone calls home to see who’s in the iMessage system and who’s not.

This log also includes the date and time when you entered a number, along with your IP address — which could, contrary to a 2013 Apple claim that “we do not store data related to customers’ location,” identify a customer’s location. Apple is compelled to turn over such information via court orders for systems known as “pen registers” or “trap and trace devices,” orders that are not particularly onerous to obtain, requiring only that government lawyers represent they are “likely” to obtain information whose “use is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.” Apple confirmed to The Intercept that it only retains these logs for a period of 30 days, though court orders of this kind can typically be extended in additional 30-day periods, meaning a series of monthlong log snapshots from Apple could be strung together by police to create a longer list of whose numbers someone has been entering.

The Intercept

2: “I Called You to Help Me, But You Killed My Brother”: Police Shoot Dead Unarmed African-American Man

Police in the San Diego, California, suburb of El Cajon shot and killed an unarmed African-American man Tuesday, after his sister called 911 to report her brother was having a mental health emergency. Eyewitnesses said 30-year-old Alfred Olango was holding his hands up when he was tased by one police officer and then fired upon five times by another officer. In video posted online, Alfred Olango’s grieving sister is seen tearfully confronting police. She tells them, “I called you to help me, but you killed my brother.”

Democracy Now

1: Two Aleppo hospitals bombed out of service in ‘catastrophic’ airstrikes

Airstrikes by forces loyal to the Syrian government have bombed out of service the two largest hospitals in besieged eastern Aleppo, which serve a quarter of a million civilians, in what doctors have described as a catastrophic campaign that is testing the conscience of the world.

“You cannot imagine what we see every day: children who are coming to us as body parts. We collect the body parts and wrap them in shrouds and bury them,” said Bara’a, a nurse at one of the affected hospitals, who was present during the bombings.

“Tell the world to wake up, to wake their consciences. Where are you? When Palestine was being destroyed everyone got involved. Why are Syria’s children being forgotten? Nobody is doing anything to reduce this suffering.”

The Guardian

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The Daily Blog Open Mic – Thursday 29th September 2016

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September 29, 2016

5

Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

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Thailand: Torture victims must be heard – Amnesty International

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September 29, 2016

Silencing human rights activists who highlight human rights violations will not solve the problem of torture and other ill-treatment in Thailand, Amnesty International said today.

In Bangkok, Thailand’s authorities prevented Amnesty International from proceeding with the launch of “Make Him Speak by Tomorrow: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Thailand.” This report details torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of soldiers and the police against suspected insurgents, government opponents, and a range of individuals from vulnerable backgrounds, including alleged drug users and minorities.

“The Thai authorities should be addressing torture, not human rights activists doing their legitimate work. Instead of threatening us with arrest and prosecution, they should be holding the perpetrators of torture accountable. It is an appalling state of affairs when speaking up for human rights can be criminalised but torture continues with impunityl,” said Minar Pimple, Amnesty International’s Senior Director, Global Operations.

At a press conference in Bangkok, Amnesty International was due to launch the report on torture and other ill-treatment in Thailand when the authorities intervened and forced a shutdown.

“We were told that the event could not proceed. The authorities claimed that they were not shutting the event down itself, but at the same time warned that if representatives of Amnesty International spoke at the event, they could be subject to arrest and prosecution under Thailand’s labour laws,” said Minar Pimple.

“We had no advance warning of this. We have engaged the Thai authorities in a constructive manner since the outset of this work on torture and other ill-treatment in the country. Before coming to Thailand to launch the report, we also shared our findings with the authorities, writing to the Prime Minister and other key ministers.”

Amnesty International remains committed to investigating, documenting, and campaigning against torture all over the world, including in Thailand.

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UN Human Rights Council debate: New Zealand’s voice absent

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September 29, 2016